Validating ideas for the short or long term

You come up with a great idea for an enterprise that you think has the potential to be successful, but you also have a full-time job…now what? The most important thing to keep in mind when deciding whether to pursue an idea or not (especially if it involves lots of work while you are already employed full time) is validating your idea and seeing whether it has the potential for short- or long-term success.

Business ideas that only have the capacity to be successful short term, shouldn’t be enterprises that require extreme amounts of time and effort, shouldn’t be too risky, and also shouldn’t jeopardize your current full-time job or career plans. Ideas that are validated to be successful in the long term, require more sacrifice and risk-taking but have a larger payout in the bigger scheme of things.

What is the difference between short-term and long-term businesses?

Not all enterprise ideas need to be long term in order to be viable. Having an idea for a short-term business is just as valid, as long as you realise this and plan accordingly.

The only issue with a short-term idea versus a long-term idea is when you don’t identify beforehand that your idea is only feasible short term and use long term business plans for a business idea that won’t be able to sustain its success.